Asset integrity management (AIM) services help oil and gas industries maintain assets to ensure better productivity, reliability, and safety by reducing risks and meeting relevant regulations. While the current decade has brought in a handful of challenges for the investment industry, especially in the oil and gas sector, as a result of the COVID-19-induced market turmoil and economic slowdown, investing in AIM services should be considered an essential part of the business.
Equipment on offshore rigs and vessels requires thorough inspection, maintenance, and appropriate repairs to ensure the best performance. Social distancing and regulations for contactless operations pose a serious threat and challenge to the oil and gas industry. In the COVID era, adopting technological advancements is the top-secret to boost efficiency, safety, cost-effectiveness, and prepare for the new normal.
Why should you upgrade?
Paper-based processes, spreadsheets, and manual reporting cycles are no longer beneficial or sustainable from a productivity point of view. With thousands of assets getting connected to the internet, these legacy workflows can neither keep up with the enormous data being generated each second nor provide real-time visibility into critical production processes. Companies should think about data-driven preventive maintenance strategies that reduce cost and maintenance efforts. During these times of uncertainties when bolstering employee health and safety measures are crucial in the upstream oil and gas industry, industries should implement automated, remote AIM solutions that allow operators to monitor assets safely from onshore facilities to reduce the need for regular onsite visits.
Leveraging Digital Solutions to Make AIM Services Easier:
There is a wide range of opportunities in the asset integrity management services for the oil and gas industries in the U.K to ensure smooth operations and enhance AIM capabilities with the help of digital solutions.
Mobile technology:
With access to real-time data from oilfield sensor networks and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, oil and gas industries can streamline maintenance operations. This will also help reduce manual effort spent on data entry by boosting collaboration and communication among operators and field workers. Leveraging Augmented reality (AR) tools and asset integrity management software, are among the best ways to guide field workers through the oilfield and assist with inspection and overhaul, reducing time spent on onsite inspection and repair.
Inspection data management (IDM):
Oil and gas businesses can migrate all legacy data to a digital and reliable IDM database and formulate standard strategies to collect, populate, and analyze new asset data digitally within the IDM software. The software will serve as a single platform to manage all equipment types owned by the organization and provide up-to-date data for powering risk-based inspection.
Global Positioning System (GPS):
Integrating GPS in AIM helps businesses know where all its fixed and rotating assets are, and save time and effort spent on tracking asset movement or locating the equipment at the time of inspection.
Integrity Operating Windows (IOWs):
Integrity Operating Windows (IOWs) is a key component of high-tech asset integrity management programs. IOWs help oil and gas industries keep track of operating conditions in near real-time with early alert notification and take immediate corrective action to mitigate downtime risk.
Risk-Based Inspection (RBI):
Businesses should build risk models that consume real-time asset data to help produce smart inspection schedules and allocate resources accordingly while delivering maximum efficiency, efficacy, and safety. LifeTech Engineering’s RBLX software provides continual auditability of data and reports to meet this purpose.
Realizing ROI With Tech-supported Asset Integrity Management
Oil and gas assets include heavy machinery and myriad parts operating together in large systems, so their damage or failure costs an arm and a leg, and often, entire operations must be shut down in order to repair them. Shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages, and even regular maintenance often require shutting down assets if technicians do not have the certified mobile devices they need to efficiently and safely perform inspections during operation.
Utilizing intrinsically safe mobile devices and IoT sensors to capture real-time data in oil and gas environments not only makes processes more efficient but also saves time and money. Intrinsically safe tablets and IoT sensors enable organizations to predict and prevent or lessen potential asset integrity issues before they occur, thus mitigating risk and saving millions of dollars in averted downtime.
By accelerating digital transformation and ensuring the digital robustness of its AIM environment, oil and gas companies would be able to redeploy scarce financial and human resources effectively, helping them achieve their business objectives and thrive during uncertain times.
As the leading AIM Company, we are the ultimate choice for businesses requiring effective asset integrity management services in the UK. We offer experienced staff and resources required to meet and exceed your inspection, engineering, data management, and safety goals. Contact us today to find out how our services can help you implement and manage a fully compliant and effective asset integrity management solution.